TiaMaria’s London Trip

On Tuesday 20th September, FreeBingo ran a special prize tournament in collaboration with jackpotjoy.com, with the top prize of a VIP trip to London to attend the 2011 Inside Soap Awards.

The lucky winner from that tournament, TiaMaria, spent two nights in the capital and met a whole host of celebrities at the champagne soaked celebrity bash. Here is her account of the trip of a lifetime.

TIAMARIA'S BLOG

Wow where do I begin about my trip to London?

OK, from the beginning I think LOL. The train journey down was great, except it was my first time on a tilting train. Boy did I get a shock when it turned a corner! LOL.

Off the train and whoever said it was a quick 10 minute walk to the hotel LIED! LOL.

We arrived at the Hotel Russell hot and bothered and in awe of the place. It was amazing. Posher than I ever imagined. Everywhere you looked was marble. I tried my posh voice hahaha didn't work so it was back to good old me. The room was lovely and had everything in it we needed from en suite to iron, LOL, not that we saw much of it as soon as we got in the room I dragged Carl back out to go sightseeing bless him.

So for the next 2 days we did the sights from Buckingham Palace to Picadilly Circus.

TiaMaria at Buckingham Palace

At 4.15 on Monday evening we gathered in the hotel bar along with the other jackpotjoy winners. OK herecomes the first glass of champagne followed by another! LOL.

5.00pm the limo arrives and we all climb in. Number 3 glass of champagne went down nicely thank you! LOL.

Now after seeing the london eye four times as the driver got lost, we finally arrived at The Gilgamesh in Camden. The limo couldnt get down so he dropped us all off in the market and we had to walk through (glamourous or what LOL).

So we made it at last, we walk in and oh dear champagne time again! We are all sat in the bar and people are starting to arrive, soon enough you can't move in there and we still hadn't seen anyone we actually knew. LOL. So we decided it was time for a quick cigarette before the Inside Soap Awards started.

We ventured outside to the smoking area and low and behold every star in the place is outside having a quick cig, which is where I found my first star, Fatboy from Eastenders. He was a proper gent and we chatted over a smoke and then I got my very first pic of the evening of us.

TiaMaria meets Fatboy

The awards themselves were very quick. I would say 30 mins from start to finish. The champagne was still flowing and then it was announced that there was an after show party upstairs in the V.I.P. lounge so off we all scampered up the stairs.

There we were met with waiters all around serving, yes you guessed it, more champagne! LOL. The food I passed on as it was sushi and not my cup of tea but if you liked it well it was everywhere you looked. We were informed it was a free bar so we could have anything we liked, but by this point I didn't actually want anything else to drink so went on to pop (cheap night out LOL). There was a casino in one corner which was free to play, and there were stars everywhere you looked. There was also a huge balcony overlooking Camden where you could escape for some fresh air.

TiaMaria meets Sam Dingle

We got chatting to James Hooten who plays Sam Dingle in Emmerdale. He was a lovely guy. I think he was a little tipsy though as at one point he dragged every 10 foot tree from every corner and situated them all in the middle of the dance floor and proceeded to dance around them! LMAO.

We also met the guy who plays Brendan Brady in Hollyoaks. I was quite wary as he is a nasty guy on TV but he was a perfect gent in real life and had no problems stood there chatting to us and also got our pic done too.

TiaMaria and Carl meet Brendan Brady

Tiamaria meets Marcus Dent & Anna Windass

TiaMaria meets Syed & Zainab Masood.

I could go on and on and on. It was an amazing trip one which I will never ever forget. The reps from jackpotjoy were all so friendly and helpful, and Aaron who looked after us from the word go was a lovely, lovely guy and I owe them all a huge thank you for the way we were treated by every single one of them xxx